Beef in ale stew.

This must be the easiest thing in the world to make, totally fool proof and incredibly yummy:

1. Get a good casserole pot – one that can go both on the hob and in the oven.
2. Warm it up on the stove with a bit of oil, throw a whole load of onion in and let them cook down.
3. Add a half kilo or so of cubed beef, not too small cause it shrinks in the oven. Let it brown for a bit.
4. Add your veg/fungus of choice, if you want any – I went for mushrooms, could do carrots and peas. Give a good stir and leave to warm up for a couple minutes.
5. Pour in your ale of choice, 500ml – I went for Boddingtons cause it was the only decent ale they had in the shop round the corner that would sell me it without ID even though I’m 25. Would have preferred Guinness, hey ho.
6. Add a couple of bay leaves, chuck it in the oven at 180C or so and leave to simmer for a good 4 hours. You’ll need to add a healthy splash of water and give it a stir every couple of hours so it doesn’t dry up, could alternatively stick a bit of foil between pot and lid.
   I didn’t do this cause I was so eager to shove food in my face after 4 hours of num scents throughout the house, but a wee Danish twist to the English classic:
7. Add a healthy amount of water to the stew, say 1.5 cups?
8. Stir a tablespoon or so of (corn-) flour into 200ml cold water, mix really well so it’s not clumpy and pour a trickle at a time into the stew, stirring continuously over a low heat on the hob until it begins to thicken up.
9. Add a couple drops of kulør – unflavoured gravy browning.
10. Let it condense down to the gravy consistency you like, maybe add a pinch of salt and pepper – Mega munch with some mash and swede!

Ok that looked a hell of a lot more complicated than it actually is. Anyway, first time I ever made it tonight, piece of pie.

A few videos.

I came across a video called How to be open-minded. It’s a very nicely illustrated, succinct and logical explanation into open-  vs close-minded thinking and behaviour, just a shame the focus is mainly on creationist theories from an atheist’s standpoint however its message can be interpreted in a broader sense.

That lead me onto Instruction Manual for Life which is another nice animation, this time about tolerance of difference using a nice little metaphor of cupboards. It’s quite cleverly done actually, reflecting idealism rather than theism and I like how he realises that there is space in the cupboard for all but fuck me that’s one ugly cupboard!

A couple of other really cool videos my housemate recommended me:

• DEADLINE – a stop-motion video of post-it animation
• This Too Shall Pass – music video by OK Go featuring an immense Rude Goldberg Machine. Turns out they’ve done a couple of videos – just saw Here It Goes Again which is a genius bit of choreography! I don’t think much of their music and they clearly have lots of money to spend on making cool videos but definitely worth a watch.

iPhone app: Promega

Just found this recently and really wishing I came across it earlier – would have been useful at the start of my placement when it first came out! It’s like a wee molecular methods textbook on my phone! There are 14 chapters on various tools such as bioluminescent reporters, amplification and purification techniques, RNA interference, transfection, etc. It explains the science behind it, provides example protocols and troubleshooting guides, discusses various applications and even has a nice collection of educational videos in the multimedia section.

4/5